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Basil Spence: Sketchbook of buildings and monuments in Spain & France.

A sketchbook containing Basil Spence's sketches of a trip to Spain and France in 1959 has been acquired by Historic Environment Scotland (formerly RCAHMS). Some of them were published in RIBA Journal in 1959 as 'Nine Pages form the President's sketchbook'.

Wed 24 Jan 2018, 14:13 | Tags: Archives, General

Spectacular perspective drawing by Nigel Grimwade accessioned by British Architectural Library.

The British Architectural Library Drawings Collection has accessioned a perspective of the Downcast Tower, Selby Colliery, drawn by Nigel Grimwade in 1978 when he was in the office of Shepherd Fidler.

Tue 24 Oct 2017, 08:58 | Tags: Archives, General

Louise Campbell: 'A background sympathetic to young and energetic minds'.

Emeritus Professor Louise Campbell will be giving a paper on Sussex University on 15 June at the Oxford Brookes conference 'Architecture Citizenship Space: British Architecture from the 1920s to the 1970s', The paper is entiltled "'A background sympathetic to young and energetic minds’: forming modern citizens at the University of Sussex'".
Tue 30 May 2017, 10:25 | Tags: Conference, General

Nigel Grimwade (1930-2015).

Nigel Grimwade, who has died at the age of 85, worked in the Spence practice during its heyday in the 1960s. He studied first at Cheltenham College of Art and then at the Architectural Association in London. It was via his friendship with Gordon Collins at the AA that Grimwade came to work for Basil Spence in 1960.

Grimwade worked first at the Canonbury atelier and then at 1 Fitzroy Square, where he and Francis MacKenzie assisted Gordon Collins in realising the first buildings at the new University of Sussex, namely Falmer House, the Physics Building and the Biology Building. After Sussex, he worked with Collins and Francis MacKenzie on the design of the Salters Hall in the City of London.

A very modest man but at the same time lively, engaging and of great personal charm, Grimwade took part in the 2008 conference Sir Basil Spence re-viewed: the architect and his office. He gave generously of his time to describe the way in which Modular Concrete (a division of Wates) set up a casting yard on site to make the thin vaults and curved edge beams which gave the buildings of the first phase of Sussex University a distinctive architectural character and superb standards of finish. This amounted to an almost craftsman-like approach to concrete. Grimwade also underlined the role of Collins at Sussex and the importance of the Spence Bonnington & Collins office in bringing to completion the teaching buildings at Sussex, Southampton and Exeter University. These insights enriched the AHRC team’s understanding of the overall organisation of the Spence practice and helped to inform the chapters about the history of the office and about English university design in our book Basil Spence buildings and projects.

After Collins’ retirement in 1972, and Jack Bonnington’s move to Tyttenhanger House, Grimwade left the practice. Latterly he worked for the Brown Matthews Partnership in Warwick, where among other projects he was responsible for detailing the new Cathedral Library at York Minster.

He was a keen photographer, and in 2008 produced a box of slides documenting the early stages of building Sussex University, and an office outing to Spence’s weekend house at Beaulieu in the 1960s. These will eventually be passed to the Sussex Special Collections and RCAHMS.
 
BELOW: Nigel Grimwade, perspective of the Biology building at Sussex University (in collection of RCAHMS).
Biology Building.
Wed 14 Oct 2015, 12:12 | Tags: Obituary, General